Amid the row over CBSE’s on-screen marks gate, 17-year-old student Sarthak Siddhant appeared before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday. According to reports, he was summoned to make a presentation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports.
The committee reviewed the use of On-Screen Marking (OSM) in CBSE Class 12 exams, along with issues and concerns reported by students.
After his presentation, Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, who heads the committee, said that the committee will now wait for CBSE’s response on this.
“He (Sarthak Sidhant, one of the students affected by CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system) has submitted his submission. It is up to the committee to decide (on the responses given by CBSE),” the Congress leader told ANI.
The 17-year-old made headlines after he posted his findings after reviewing tender documents on the central public procurement portal. Its findings claimed that the Central Board of Secondary Education had “rewritten the rules” in favor of Coempt EduTeck.
Siddhant claimed on his blog that the board adjusted eligibility and technical requirements across three rounds of tenders, all of which benefited Coempt EduTeck.
“There were at least 15 discrepancies, according to my blog. I would like to highlight three-four of them. Let me give the background on Coempt. It was known as Globarena, and they have a very suspicious background. 23 students committed suicide due to coempt,” he told news agency ANI.
Read also | The government is seeking a detailed report from CBSE on the OSM tender amid a row over Class 12 evaluation
He further added that the first contradiction was the erasure of the poor performance condition.
“The first discrepancy is that there are three ‘underperforming’ items that have been completely erased from the new RFP. In the previous RFP, there was a line called ‘previously blacklisted’ while in the new RFP, it has been changed to ‘currently blacklisted’. Why would the board want a service provider that was previously blacklisted?” He said.
An investigation by Hindustan Times also revealed technical changes between the bidding rounds.
Siddhant’s blog also caught the attention of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who was vocal about the inconsistencies in the process.
“[Sidhant] He has exposed the hollowness of (Education Minister) Dharmendra Pradhan Ji’s denial. The Prime Minister remains silent as usual. The question is simple: Who are they protecting, and why? “An independent judicial investigation is now necessary to uncover the full extent of this fraud,” Gandhi wrote on X.
